Ali Omar Ader found guilty in kidnapping of Amanda Lindhout in Somalia

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An image of Ali Omar Ader is projected on a screen at RCMP headquarters during a press conference about his arrest for the kidnapping of Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout, in Ottawa on June 12, 2015. An emotional Amanda Lindhout recounted the horrors of being kidnapped at gunpoint in Somalia as the trial of one of her alleged hostage-takers got underway.THE CANADIAN PRESS/ PATRICK DOYLE

OTTAWA — Ali Omar Ader has been found guilty in the kidnapping of Amanda Lindhout in Somalia.

The verdict was handed down in a packed courtroom Wednesday by Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Smith, who presided over Ader’s 10-day trial.

In his lengthy reasons for the decision, Smith said Ader was a “willing participant” in the hostage-taking.

Smith found much of Ader’s testimony was unbelievable and did not support his claim that he was forced into serving as a negotiator and translator on behalf of a gang who threatened to harm him and his family.

Ader, a 40-year-old Somalian national, betrayed little emotion as the verdict was announced.

Amanda Lindhout is photographed in Toronto on Monday, October 16 , 2017, as she helps promote her mother Lorinda Stewart’s book “One Day Closer.”THE CANADIAN PRESS/CHRIS YOUNG

Lindhout was a freelance journalist from Red Deer, Alta., when she and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were seized by armed men near Mogadishu in August 2008, the beginning of 15 months in captivity. They were released upon payment of a ransom.

Ader, who speaks some English, developed a business relationship through phone calls and emails with a man who promised to help publish his book about Somalia.

They met face-to-face in 2013 on the island of Mauritius, where the business agent — actually an undercover Mountie — says Ader freely spoke of helping the hostage-takers in return for US$10,000 in ransom money.

Lorinda Stewart (right) and her daughter Amanda Lindhout are photographed in Toronto on Monday, October 16, 2017, as they promote Stewart’s book “One Day Closer.” The book is Stewart’s account of her quest to bring her daughter, Amanda Lindhout, home after she was kidnapped in Somalia in 2008.THE CANADIAN PRESS/CHRIS YOUNG

A book contract signing came two years later in Ottawa with the officer and a supposed publisher, all secretly captured on a police video. Again, Ader tells the RCMP he was paid to assist the kidnappers. He was arrested the next day.

As the lone defence witness, Ader told the court that he, too, was abducted by the gang and forced to be a negotiator and interpreter.

Ader described being held by the gunmen in an apartment for several months, as well as getting orders from the gang about what to say during calls to Lindhout’s mother, Lorinda Stewart. He told of being beaten, escaping and later surrendering when the hostage-takers made serious threats against his family.

Ader said that in Mauritius, he tried to tell the man he believed to be his business agent that he was coerced into helping the kidnappers. But the man wasn’t interested, so he told him what he wanted to hear.

Prosecutor Croft Michaelson said Ader’s testimony was “riddled with inconsistencies” and should be rejected.

Ader told the true story of his role in the kidnapping in Mauritius, not in the courtroom, Michaelson said. The prosecutor suggested it simply wouldn’t make sense for Ader to confess to something he did not do.

Trevor Brown, one of Ader’s lawyers, said it was important to remember the Somalia of 2009 was a chaotic country with no sense of order or security, a place where those with weapons wielded power.

The gang members who kidnapped Lindhout and Brennan were cruel and unpredictable people “eminently capable” of ordering Ader to help them, Brown told the court.

In the judgment Wednesday, Smith noted that Ader never mentioned in emails or phone calls that he or his family had been threatened if he did not help the hostage-takers, a claim that only surfaced during the trial.

“If he had assisted the hostage-takers due to threats, this would have reduced his culpability for the hostage-taking and assisted him in obtaining the book contract,” Smith said.

“It does not make sense to lie about his involvement to make his conduct appear worse to the publisher and the public who he hoped would buy his book.”